How ICPC seized 33 buildings from JAMB accountant working for Dibu Ojerinde – Anti-corruption agency

Details of the sleaze that allegedly transpired when a veteran scholar, Professor Dibu Ojerinde, was the Registrar at the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) have emerged.

No one knew there ‘was’ money at JAMB, let alone massive corruption, until the current registrar, Ishaq Oloyede, took over and started remitting billions into the Federal Government’s purse.

It was then searchlight began to probe into what had been or ought to have been.

Ojerinde had been arrested, detained and he had been on trial with considerations for plea bargaining that sometimes turned controversial.

But a new report has shown how Dr Jimoh Olatunde, the accountant who worked with him at the Board, has been stripped off many valuable assets.

According to a report by ‘The Punch’, the list of assets the ICPC from him 33 buildings, plots of land and a factory.

Olatunde is the prosecution witness in a case of official corruption and abuse of office brought against Prof Dibu Ojerinde, a former head of the National Examination Council and later JAMB registrar.

The ex-JAMB accountant was believed to have acted as proxy for Ojerinde.

The ICPC in an 18-count accused Ojerinde of diverting public funds estimated at about N5.2bn while he was the head of NECO and JAMB.

“Olatunde, who was also the Deputy Director and Head of Treasury, NECO, revealed how Ojerinde allegedly diverted N341.9m from the examination body to set up a personal printing press, school and buildings.

“The witness, who testified before the High Court of Niger State, Minna, told the trial judge, Justice Abdullahi Mikailu, that N216,297,443 was deceitfully withdrawn from NECO account for payment for 17 fictitious printing contracts, which were used for establishing the printing press,” it added.